But, right on schedule, the National Post reports that Irving, the Halifax shipyard that will build new combat ships, proposes to “take a commercial roll-on/roll off vessel and convert it to carry a hospital, medical supplies and emergency equipment to respond to a variety of missions, ranging from earthquake relief to providing aid to refugees … [and] … Irving submitted the proposal Friday to the officials co-ordinating the government’s defence review. It will publicly unveil the scheme at the CANSEC defence trade show Wednesday in Ottawa.“

There is nothing wrong with a hospital ship. There is nothing wrong with a Canadian hospital ship. In a perfect world proper world Irving would be proposing a Public-Private Partnership with, say, Global Affairs Canada and a few major teaching hospitals and someone like, say, ATCO. But my sense is that they (Irving) see this as a government might be more willing to spend defence dollars on non-military or, at a stretch, quasi-military things, so …

I have not, yet, seen a picture of the ship. A cyber-colleague, a sailor who has seen a mockup said “I had a look at their model today. Weird looking bastard. They have a ton of containers up forward under the weather deck. Not exactly clear how they get there or out.“